Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Grand Prix Shuffle

So I have a little tool on blog that let's me know what google searches bring people to my blog and one google searcher was looking for the location of 2009 Skate America.

I myself would actually like to know the answer to this so I decided to embark on a little research. I in fact did a google search myself to no avail. I decided to rummage through the US Figure Skating site...nothing. So then I decided to try the ISU website and I found the most unusual schedule!

So the host city for 2009 Skate America hasn't been named quite yet but the Grand Prix events have been reshuffled! Hardcore skating fans know that there is an order for the Grand Prix events that is rarely deviated from: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China (formerly Nations Cup in Germany), Trophee Eric Bompard, Cup of Russia, NHK Trophy. This is the way of things, right? Wrong!

Next season the Grand Prix kicks off...in Paris! Cup of Russia is next, then Cup of China, NHK Trophy, Skate America (the 5th event!), and Skate Canada will close the show! Also, the Grand Prix season starts a week earlier, beginning October 15th.

Also, I hadn't even noticed...but beginning this season, the Junior and Senior Grand Prix Finals have been combined into one big event! How did I not catch that?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, one of those Google searchers was me ! But I've not used Google to locate your blog for a long time ever since bookmarked it.
I'm also a figure skate fan and have been visiting your blog to read your journals.
I truly thank for your interesting journals and will continue visiting your blog if you don't mind :)

Anonymous said...

IceNetwork actually did an article about this back when it was first announced. The title was "Shuffling the Grand Prix Deck."

Aaron said...

Geez...I REALLY missed this!

And anonymous, your welcome and come and visit as often as you please!

Unknown said...

Ohhhh! I did miss the memo on this one as well. That's interesting news for sure. It makes more sense to include the junior events, for sure, though that will affect the more 'secondary' skating countries that tend to hose the Jr. GP events. So, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Though, it does make me far more tempted to attend Skate America now. :)